Joni Ernst Will Castrate Joe Biden For All The Ukraine Criming

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Nutcuttin) was all over the news this weekend explaining that while Donald Trump is certainly innocent of everything, that Joe Biden had better watch his step or Republicans will have to impeach him his first day in office, a noble thing to say when there's an R after your name but proof of a dirty political vendetta if the letter is a D. Repeating all the lies she had handy, Ernst explained to Bloomberg News yesterday that Biden is bleeding impeachment from his whatevers:

I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened [...] Joe Biden should be very careful what he's asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, "Well, we're going to impeach him."

In case you're counting, that makes two elections in a row where Republicans have promised to impeach a Democrat on their first day in office, though we have to say Ernst is certainly pushing the envelope by bringing it up before the primaries are underway. It's really just a sequel to her suggestion last week that Iowa Democrats be very careful about who they choose in tonight's caucuses, because if there's anyone Iowa Dems listen to, it's a tea party Republican lady.

Ernst explained that Biden would have to be impeached, because if you can't believe a bunch of repeatedly debunked lies, well then you don't understand how impeach works. Biden's high crime and Mister Meaners would be

for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year.

Also too, bonus points to Bloomberg for crappy fact-checking -- the story provides some context for the Republican narrative and says it "has been debunked" -- but it doesn't bother going into the details of the debunking. So we'll do that yet again, to be servicey!

The true stuff: Joe Biden was indeed Barack Obama's point person on getting corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin removed from office. And yes, like a lot of worthlesschildren of prominent people, Hunter Biden was trading on his dad's name for a job on Burisma's board. Biden's effort to get rid of Shokin was part of an international effort, and nah, no Republicans complained about Shokin's removal when it happened. And that international pressure to fire Shokin came about because he wasn't investigating corruption.

The bullshit: At the time Shokin was shitcanned, his investigation into Burisma had been dormant for a year. And the investigation Shokin had set aside wasn't into Hunter Biden -- according to a Ukrainian anti-corruption NGO it involved corruption allegations dating back to 2010 to 2012, while Hunter Biden only joined the Burisma board in 2014. And there's no evidence that Hunter Biden ever did anything illegal, period.

Not that any of it matters to Ernst, who also took her "Smart Dems won't vote for Biden" message to the Sunday shows. After CNN's Jake Tapper suggested that Ernst was taking on Rudy Giuliani's mission of trying to weaken the candidate Trump fears most, Ernst said no of course not, it's the Democrats who keep talking about Biden, silly:

No, I think that in that conversation we were having with reporters the other day, it was quite evident the House managers brought up Vice President Biden and his son Hunter and Burisma over 400 times in their opening argument — 400 times in their opening arguments.

Why, yes, you sort of have to mention the guy's name when the president's crime was extorting the announcement of an investigation into him. Just look at how much we "bring up" Joe Biden right here, oh dear, we are part of the problem!

Just to make clear she wasn't at all trying to push against any particular candidate in the caucuses, Ernst replied to Tapper's pointing out that nobody's identified anything the Bidens did wrong by once more emphasizing the caucuses are on the way:

I think that, again, what we have seen is the Democrats presenting their case. And I think it just really did show that there was something of concern with Burisma [...] And so I think that the Democrats can can follow that. They will make that decision as they go to the caucuses tonight.

The caucuses, we should note, are tonight, Monday, not yesterday, Sunday. No telling if that's just Ernst being dumb or hoping she might send a few Democrats into the snow on the wrong night.